System, method and computer program product for simulating the flight path of a ball

ABSTRACT

A system, method and computer program product are provided in which the initial sidespin of a ball is measured such that the resulting flight path of the ball may be simulated more accurately. In this regard, a plurality of initial conditions of the ball, including sidespin, are measured, such as by a sensor including, for example, at least one camera that captures at least two images of the ball. The flight path of the ball is then determined, such as by means of a computing device, based upon the initial conditions including measurement of the ball spin. A representation of the resulting flight path is then created, again typically by means of the computing device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/581,960, filed Jun. 22, 2004 and entitled System and Method for Simulating the Flight Path of a Ball, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to techniques for simulating the flight path of a ball.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Simulators are utilized in conjunction with a variety of sports activities. For example, golf simulators where a golfer hits into a net, against a screen or the like are popular, both for entertainment and for practice purposes. Golf simulators are generally constructed of a base, an overhead canopy, a hitting net and a screen, typically comprised of nylon or a similar material, into which the golfer can hit. Many conventional golf simulators employ a radar-based system to track the initial or launch conditions of the ball immediately following the golf club striking the ball, i.e., immediately following launch, since it is believed that camera-based systems would be too expensive and too cumbersome to operate. Other golf simulators may use a club sensor that tracks the direction, speed and angle of the club head at the time of impact with the ball and a ball sensor that measures the speed and path angles of the ball. The initial conditions that are measured may include the initial speed of the golf ball and the angle at which the golf ball is launched.

Golf simulators include a computer for receiving the measurements of the initial conditions and for determining ball flight based upon these initial conditions and a predefined flight model that is premised upon the physics associated with ball flight. Finally, golf simulators include a projector, such as an LCD projector, and an associated screen or display. The projector is driven by the computer to present the flight of the ball on the screen, which may be positioned in front of the golfer.

Unfortunately, conventional simulators employing a radar-based system or ball sensor fail to measure all of the parameters that are necessary to predict actual ball flight. For instance, a radar-based system can measure initial ball velocity, vertical launch angle and lateral launch angle, but not backspin and sidespin of the golf ball at the time of launch. Since backspin and sidespin are critical to accurately predicting ball flight, backspin and sidespin may be inferred and then utilized in the flight model. The inference of the initial spin characteristics of the golf ball may be relatively inaccurate such that the resulting image of the flight of the ball is similarly inaccurate. For example, conventional golf simulators seem to underestimate at least the initial sidespin of the ball such that the calculated flight path appears more heavily influenced by the launch angle than by the sidespin of the ball. This underestimation manifests itself in an image of the flight path being constructed that tends to extend in a direction governed by the lateral launch angle without any substantial curvature of the flight path that would be attributable to sidespin. For golf shots, such as drives and long irons, that have substantial carry, the difference between the actual and simulated flight paths may be significant, especially in instances in which the ball has substantial sidespin. By failing to accurately account for the sidespin, conventional simulators likewise fail to reliably simulate the golf shots, especially those with substantial carry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system, method and computer program product are therefore provided according to embodiments of the present invention in which the initial sidespin of a ball is measured such that the resulting flight path of the ball may be simulated more accurately. In this regard, a plurality of initial conditions of the ball, including sidespin, are measured, such as by a sensor including, for example, at least one camera that captures at least two images of the ball. The flight path of the ball is then determined, such as by means of a computing device, based upon the initial conditions including measurement of the ball spin. A representation of the resulting flight path is then created, again typically by means of the computing device. By measuring sidespin, however, the resulting flight path can be simulated by the system, method and computer program products of embodiments of the present invention in an accurate fashion.

In one embodiment, the backspin on the ball may also be measured and utilized to determine the flight path of the ball in order to further improve the accuracy with which a representation of the flight path may be created. An image of the representation of the flight path may also be presented, such as by a display. Further, as the method, apparatus and computer program product are designed to facilitate simulation of the flight path of a golf ball, the actual flight path is limited, such as by means of a net or screen. Moreover, to enhance the simulation experience, a simulated environmental image based upon the resulting flight path may also be created and presented concurrent with the image of the resulting flight path.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a image of the flight path of a ball created by a system, method and computer program product of one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the operations performed in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present inventions now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

A system 10 for simulating a flight path of a ball according to one embodiment of the present invention is depicted in FIG. 1. While the system and method will be primarily described in conjunction with golf simulation in which a golfer hits into a screen, a net or other means for limiting the flight path of the ball, the system and method may be employed in conjunction with the simulation of a number of other sports activities including the simulation of the flight path of a ball thrown by a pitcher or a ball hit by a batter in the baseball or softball context.

In the context of golf simulation, however, a golfer takes a shot, typically into a hitting net as described above. The system 10 of embodiments of the present invention includes a sensor 12 positioned, generally in front of or to the side of the golfer, to measure a plurality of initial conditions including initial ball velocity, vertical launch angle, lateral launch angle and sidespin, as well as back spin in some embodiments. See, for example, step 20 of FIG. 3. The sensor can advantageously include one or more cameras for capturing at least two images of the ball immediately after launch from which the foregoing initial conditions, including side spin, can be measured. In this regard, one exemplary sensor is described more fully by U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/360,196 filed Feb. 7, 2003 and entitled “Methods, Apparatus And Computer Program Products For Processing Images Of A Golf Ball”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Although not necessary for the present invention, the sensor may also include a conventional club head sensor, if desired to capture club swing parameters.

The system 10 also includes a computing device 14, such as a processor, a personal computer or the like that operates under control of a computer program stored in memory 16 as well as any other combination of hardware, such as an electronic circuitry, ASIC or the like, software or firmware, for thereafter determining the flight path of the ball at least partially based upon the initial conditions including the measurement of the sidespin. See step 22 of FIG. 3. In this regard, the computing device can determine the flight path of the ball in accordance with a predefined flight model that relies upon the initial conditions including sidespin for its modeling activities. The computing device can utilize any desired flight model that includes side spin in its flight path determination including, for example, the flight model promulgated by the U.S. Golf Association (USGA) or by a similar flight model, such as those that may dynamically vary the lift and drag coefficients based upon relative wind (the vector sum of the actual wind and the direction of travel of the ball), spin rate, ball speed and/or ball design.

The computing device 14 then creates a representation of the resulting flight path. See step 24 of FIG. 3. In a simulation environment, the representation is generally an image of the resulting flight path along with accompanying statistics such as carry, roll, total distance and lateral distance, i.e., distance to the left or right. However, the computing device may merely represent the resulting flight path by means of the foregoing or other parameters that are displayed for the golfer and/or stored for subsequent analysis.

In order to present the representation of the flight path that has been created by the computing device to the user, the system 10 may also include a display 18, such as a display screen or a projector, such as an LCD projector, that is driven by the computing device 14. As shown in FIG. 2, the display can present an image of the flight path along with some accompanying statistics. See step 26 of FIG. 3. Notably, the system and method of embodiments of the present invention measure sidespin and then determine that flight path based upon the measured sidespin such that the resulting flight path more realistically exhibits a hook or slice, thereby enhancing the user's simulation experience.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ball started to the right, but then moved right to left attributable, at least in part, to side spin. While a conventional simulator would likely have shown this same shot to have stayed to the right, the system and method of embodiments of the present invention more accurately reflect the effect of sidespin upon the flight path which curves back to the left in FIG. 2.

In addition to presenting an image of the flight path, the system 10 is advantageously also capable of presenting a simulated environmental image, such as an image of a portion of a golf course with the flight path superimposed thereupon. In this regard, the memory 16 may store data representative of images one or more golf courses or, at least, one or more holes of a golf course. Prior to the golfer taking a shot that will be simulated by the system of this embodiment of the present invention, the computing device 14 may drive the display 18 based upon data retrieved from the memory to present an image of that portion of the golf course from which the simulated golf shot is considered to have been taken, such as a tee box, a position on the fairway, etc. The golfer can then take a shot that is monitored by the sensor 12. Based upon the initial conditions captured by the sensor, the computing device can create a representation of the flight path of the golf shot and can then direct the display to present an image of the flight path of the golf shot. To enhance the simulation environment, the computing device can also retrieve data from the memory that represents that portion of the golf course over which the simulated golf shot traveled and can further drive the display to depict an image of that portion of the golf course over which the simulated golf shot carried. See step 28 of FIG. 3. In this regard, the computing device determines the portion of the golf course to be displayed based upon the flight path that has been created The resulting display can thereafter be driven by the computing device to depict the resting position of the golf ball from which the next simulated shot will be taken.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the functions performed by the computing device are performed under control of a computer program product. The computer program product of embodiments of the present invention includes a computer-readable storage medium, such as memory 16, and computer-readable program code portions, such as a series of computer instructions, embodied in the computer-readable storage medium.

In this regard, FIG. 3 is an example of a flow diagram of one embodiment of the methods and computer program products according to embodiments of the present invention. It will be understood that each block or step of the flowchart, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus 14 to produce a machine, such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart's block(s) or step(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory 16 that can direct a computer or other programmable apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart's block(s) or step(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowcharts' block(s) or step(s).

Accordingly, blocks or steps of the flowcharts support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block or step of the flowcharts, and combinations of blocks or steps in the flowcharts, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. 

1. A method for simulating a flight path of a ball comprising: measuring a plurality of initial conditions of the ball including sidespin of the ball; determining the flight path of the ball at least partially based upon the initial conditions including measurement of the sidespin; and creating a representation of the resulting flight path.
 2. A method according to claim 1 wherein measuring the plurality of initial conditions comprises measuring backspin of the ball, and wherein determining the flight path of the ball comprises determining the flight path of the ball based upon measurement of the backspin.
 3. A method according to claim 1 further comprising presenting an image of the resulting flight path.
 4. A method according to claim 1 further comprising: creating a simulated environmental image based upon the resulting flight path; and presenting the simulated environmental image concurrent with the image of the resulting flight path.
 5. A method according to claim 1 wherein measuring the plurality of initial conditions comprises capturing at least two images of the ball.
 6. A method according to claim 1 further comprising limiting the flight path of the ball.
 7. A system for simulating a flight path of a ball comprising: a sensor for measuring a plurality of initial conditions of the ball including sidespin of the ball; and a computing device for determining the flight path of the ball at least partially based upon the initial conditions including measurement of the sidespin, said computing device also creating a representation of the resulting flight path.
 8. A system according to claim 7 wherein said sensor comprises at least one camera for capturing at least two images of the ball.
 9. A system according to claim 7 wherein said sensor also measures backspin of the ball, and wherein said computing device is capable of determining the flight path of the ball based upon measurement of the backspin.
 10. A system according to claim 7 further comprising a display, responsive to said computing device, for presenting an image of the resulting flight path.
 11. A system according to claim 10 further comprising a memory for storing data representative of simulated environmental images, wherein said computing device is also capable of creating a simulated environmental image based upon the resulting flight path, and wherein said display is also capable of presenting the simulated environmental image concurrent with the image of the resulting flight path.
 12. A system according to claim 7 further comprising at least one of a screen or a net into which the ball is hit.
 13. A computer program product for simulating a flight path of a ball, the computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising: a first executable portion capable of receiving measurements of a plurality of initial conditions of the ball including sidespin of the ball; a second executable portion capable of determining the flight path of the ball at least partially based upon the initial conditions including measurement of the sidespin; and a third executable portion capable of creating a representation of the resulting flight path.
 14. A computer program product according to claim 13 wherein said first executable portion is further capable of receiving a measurement of backspin of the ball, and wherein said second executable portion is further capable of determining the flight path of the ball based upon measurement of the backspin.
 15. A computer program product according to claim 13 further comprising a fourth executable portion capable of driving a display to present an image of the resulting flight path.
 16. A computer program product according to claim 15 further comprising: a fifth executable portion capable of creating a simulated environmental image based upon the resulting flight path; and a sixth executable portion capable of driving a display to present the simulated environmental image concurrent with the image of the resulting flight path. 